Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Sportstalk hosts need to be a passionately pursue the truth – and managers need to cast toward that trait

by Kent Sterling

Bernie Miklasz has been cast very well as a seeker of the truth by 101ESPN in St. Louis.

So I’m watching a movie called “Casting by” on HBO last night about casting directors in Hollywood, and my mind kept flashing back to building talk radio stations.

In movies, the quality of a film is dependent upon a number of factors, but the most important is the selection of the actors for the cast. The same holds true in radio. The writing determines the casting, and then the lighting, photography, and editing bring the performances to the screen.

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Radio is very similar. Talk radio is about ‘who’ much more than it’s about ‘what’. It’s the people who make a radio station, and nothing is more important than hiring the right people to connect with the audience. Tactics are icing on the cake, but the cake itself is made of talented people.

Compelling teases through spotsets, relevant topic choices, and well plotted and executed interviews are important, but none of that can overcome the selection of a host that cannot connect with an audience.

“I can teach anyone to be a good host,” is a refrain heard often from program directors who are eager to embrace their own importance in the formula of building a great radio station. Teaching someone to be good should never be the goal. Great should be the goal, and great can’t be taught. It can only be recognized, hired, and empowered.

The movie about casting took me back to my time at 1070 the Fan here in Indianapolis and 101ESPN in St. Louis. In Indianapolis, we had to try to establish a culture of camaraderie, excellence, and creativity. In St. Louis, the bar for correct execution had already been set, and the talent (who were cast correctly) needed to be enabled to step out of the box where creative magic can be found.

Regardless of my insistence in talent doing the little things right, success and failure was determined by the hosts embracing a sense of joy and truth in performance, just like actors who search for the inner essence of their characters. Hosts need to find that truth in themselves and bring it with them during every segment of every show.

Soon to be former St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz being re-hired by 101ESPN reminded me of the need for truth in talk radio and all media. Bernie is intensely honest as he speaks and writes. He finds the truth. That isn’t his job; it’s his mission in life. And so it should be ours.

Dan Dakich does the same thing at 1070 the Fan. At Noon each weekday, Dan launches himself headfirst at the truth with great enthusiasm, and that’s where talk radio greatness lives.

As I built the framework for the radio show I host everyday from 3p-6p on CBS Sports 1430 in Indianapolis, honesty and passion on the same level Bernie brought everyday during my two years in St. Louis was a must. Bernie never takes calls – in fact, very, very few have ever been taken by that great radio station. His work ethic allows him to carry three hours talking about sports and nothing but sports (okay, there might be an occasional detour into discussing Bruce Springsteen) and that’s what listeners expect.

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Now I’m not Bernie and neither is any other host, but the essence of what he brings every day is there in all hosts, and to be great that essence needs to be cultivated. Same with Dan. Find the truth as best you can – deliver it with passion. Work hard enough to be able to deliver on the promise of talking sports every segment. That’s a pretty good recipe for great sportstalk radio.

Finding those who can deliver great radio is the only reason to be a program director, just as being a casting director for a film is only a valid pursuit if the perfect actor is found for the perfect part. Finding and exposing your best self while entrenched in a never-ending and passionate search for honesty is the only reason to sit in front of a microphone everyday for three hours, just as finding the nucleus of a character is the only reason to act.

Performance is performance whether in front of a camera, on the stage, or sitting alone in a room railing at the injustices of sports, and raw is what radio does best. Be that everyday, and relentlessly deliver on that promise. Sounds like a plan.

Colin Cowherd’s firing at ESPN shows need for talent management

by Kent Sterling

Colin Cowherd a goner at ESPN because he stepped on a third rail management might have helped him avoid.

Colin Cowherd is a great radio talent whose mouth gets ahead of his brain once in a while. He believes that because he tries to tell the truth as he sees it that everything he says then must be the truth.

That’s a philosophy that leads to great success for sportstalk hosts, but can also make for disastrous mistakes.

Management is key for a talent like Cowherd because without perpetual reminders that words can have consequences, they tend to wander into trouble – as Cowherd did by insulting Dominicans en masse as ignorant yo-yos who would be incapable of playing another sport professionally.

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Cowherd used to be managed by a very capable guy named Scott Masteller. Scott worked hard to help Cowherd become the dynamic talent that he is, and when Scott moved on from ESPN, I wondered how Cowherd might respond.

This wasn’t Cowherd’s first time saying something Trumpian, but because he was a short-timer it will be the last at ESPN. It’s not that Cowherd was wrong in his assessment – I don’t personally know enough Dominicans to have an educated opinion about their level of intellect, although I have found that smart people are everywhere in similar ratios. It’s that a group ESPN wants to maintain a positive relationship with are upset, and Cowherd is leaving. Easy (if gutless) decision.

Cowherd decided over the last few weeks that leaving ESPN would provide a greater challenge, and he is headed for Fox Sports 1. He was continuing to work at ESPN a period of time that had yet to be announced.

Managing talent requires them to understand that honesty is a compelling force for good until it disturbs broadcast partners like Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and other leagues that supply much needed play-by-play to networks/stations.

While partners understand the need for unvarnished commentary to drive consumption of sports media, there are consequences for rubbing raw those who run the leagues. ESPN’s slate of Monday Night Football games is wretched compared to those in previous years. Is that because the NFL was more than a little honked off at ESPN for zealous coverage of Roger Goodell’s responses to the Ray Rice debacle? No one will admit to it, but it’s a good bet.

With Cowherd, MLB was eager to defend the significant percentage of players from the Dominican Republic, and given that he’s is a short-timer, the decision to punt was easy for ESPN. Adios!

Management can keep talent apprised of the dangers of overstepping into the kind of outrageous generalizations that Cowherd espoused, so now he becomes Fox’s challenge.

Will a high dollar free agent signee like Cowherd be eager to accept a mandate that he tone down the divisive rhetoric, or will he dance with the girl that brung him. It’s a hell of a lot easier to get the attention of a host who is grateful for being discovered, as Cowherd was at ESPN, than to cajole compliance from a host that has been told he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread while being compensated beyond logic.

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Fox has partnerships that are critical to its success, including those with the NFL and MLB, the same people who were so agitated by his remarks.

While sitting alone in a room every weekday for three hours, it can become easy to amuse yourself. It takes discipline to avoid the third rail topics that can define and wreck a career. That discipline is supplied by high quality management like Masteller, who always put the needs of his talent and operation ahead of his own.

Without men like Masteller, talent like Cowherd have difficulty surviving.

Former Colts QB Jack Trudeau arrested for DUI and PI early this morning

by Kent Sterling

Jack Trudeau shortly after being arrested for driving while intoxicated and public intoxication.

Jack Trudeau was arrested at 12:44 this morning for operating a vehicle while intoxicated and public intoxication by Zionsville police.

This isn’t the first time Trudeau has run afoul of the law for alcohol related issues. He was arrested for striking a cop in a bar fight and driving while intoxicated in separate incidents a quarter century ago, and was also charged with supplying alcohol to minors while hosting a high school graduation party for his son.

There is no excuse for driving drunk these days with Uber being a more convenient and cheap alternative to calling a cab. It shows indifference to the well-being of others, and reflects a combination of stupidity and arrogance that requires a serious consequence.

My Mom worked with addicts for 30 years and has always said that multiple arrests point toward addiction being part of the equation for the accused. If Trudeau is battling demons and needs help, here’s hoping he has the intestinal fortitude to seek it out.

Letter from Eastern Michigan football coach shows folly of protecting kids from football

by Kent Sterling

Chris Creighton wrote a letter to moms about football that tries to bring logic back to parenting.

There is no pain like that of a parent who pays the price for exposing his or her child to danger. When parents say they would gladly take on the pain a child experiences, those aren’t just words.

It would be the easiest decision any parent could make.

More and more parents are choosing to protect their sons from football because of head injuries and other physical consequences of knocking heads with behemoths. Sadly, those kids are also being protected from the benefits of a great team-building activity.

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Chris Creighton, the football coach at Eastern Michigan University published a public letter to moms of young men to advise them about the positives of football while acknowledging there is a risk of health-related negatives.

Football isn’t for everyone. My parents didn’t allow me to play as I was angry, dumb, and very skinny – a recipe for disaster on the gridiron. Friends of mine who did play bonded with teammates in a profound way that resulted in tight lifelong friendships. I regret nothing as friendships are certainly available for those who don’t play football, and I made friends in high school I enjoy to this day, but as far as learning that no man is an island, there are few better teachers than the game of football.

My son never played football. His love was basketball – a game that can reward selfishness in a way football suffocates. His high school has had significant success at football, so he was tempted to play several times, and maybe he should have. As nervous as I would get during basketball games about sprains, I can’t imagine my anxiety over concussions.

But we cannot wrap our kids in bubblewrap and protect them from all harm. Adversity – both physical and emotional – is a great teacher, and without the occasional consequences for missteps, we would never learn anything. Our bubble-boy safety measures would lead people toward a false feeling of imperviousness.

Bad things happen, and while minimizing the likelihood of misery in body and mind is just common sense, a lack of bad leads to a lack of appreciation for the good.

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Football is a controlled environment where good and bad happen every single play. Don’t bubblewrap your kids. Turn them loose, and let them follow their passion.

Here is the letter from Creighton that makes such a compelling and balanced case:

To Moms of boys wanting to play football,

Growing up on the West Coast, I played every sport I could – soccer, basketball, baseball, tennis, I swam and for a short period I was even in a bowling league, but the only time I got to play football was at school during recess. I am pretty sure that the universal rules of recess football are still the same: Two-hand touch (when the recess lady was watching), one run per every four downs, two completions for a first down and we always debated whether we were going to count “Alligator” or “Mississippi” to rush the passer.

My parents never allowed playing organized football to be an option for me. They didn’t want me to get hurt. In the spring of eighth grade, the high school football coach came to our middle school to talk to a bunch of us about playing high school football. I was interested in soccer and the other sports at the time but playing football was definitely intriguing. My mom still would not let me play.

For two more years I continued to play other sports, and on Friday nights, as the football team played under the lights, I sat with the rest of the student body and watched. I really wanted to play, but my mom wouldn’t budge.

In the summer between my sophomore and junior year, unbeknownst to me, a group of my friends’ parents ganged up on my mom and convinced her that she would really regret it if she didn’t allow me to play. Amazingly, she finally relented and said I could play!

I played that season of football and fell in love. I have not missed a football season since that fall of 1985 and my life has never been the same.

The game of football has so much to teach and so much to give.

Football taught me what it means to be a part of something bigger than myself. Success in football requires selflessness and true teamwork. It is impossible to have any kind of personal success without your teammates – impossible. No matter how talented an individual might be, he will never win one versus eleven. In a powerful way, the game of football is very humbling as it demands that players put the team over the individual.

A football team is unlike any other, in that it depends on all kinds of body types and skill sets. Short, tall, stocky, thin, fast, not so fast, strong, not as strong, cerebral, and hardheaded – they all can have a place and a position on a football team. There are so many different roles and positions and every one of them matters.

Football teams break down race barriers better than anything else I have ever been a part of in my life. When you are in a huddle holding hands you don’t see brown, black, white, red, yellow, or green. You see your brothers, your teammates who are depending on you, and who you are depending on to do their job. The best teams that I have been a part of truly love each other. When a young man gets the opportunity to be a part of that, he will never be the same. It is a powerful reality and one that the rest of society certainly could stand to emulate.

In addition to teamwork, football develops toughness – mental, physical and emotional. The toughness I am talking about is not merely the ability to push another player out of the way or tackle the guy with the ball, but rather the refusal to be discouraged or distracted in the face of a challenge. Football teaches the value of hard work, the necessity of honoring commitments no matter what, and the unbelievable power of a positive attitude in the face of adversity. Because it is uniquely demanding, football has the ability to instill belief, self-confidence, and discipline.

We all want our boys to grow up to be responsible and effective in life. Being successful in life as an adult absolutely requires toughness. Maintaining a strong marriage, raising kids, developing a career, and sticking to a value system all require commitment, responsibility, and perseverance. In a culture that is raising boys that seek to be entertained rather than be challenged, I submit to you that no other game develops toughness that translates to success in life quite like the game of football.

Unfortunately, the game of football is under attack. People are being steered away by the recent attention to concussions and other injuries. I am now a college football coach and have been for 24 years. I have a deep concern for the well being of every one of my players – I always have and always will. I am not an anomaly. We take concussions and all injuries very seriously. Over the last 10 years, we have seen significant changes in the rules of the game, the introduction of annual baseline testing as well as post-injury testing on athletes, improvement in helmet quality and fit, and dedicated training for physicians, athletic trainers, players, and coaches on the presentation and management of concussion. Player safety is definitely a focus in the game of football.

Let it also be known that research shows that more concussions occur from riding bikes than from playing football and soccer tops the list when it comes to girls’ sports. I have a daughter who plays soccer and loves it, and all three of our children ride bikes! Of course, I cannot tell you that your son will not have to deal with an injury from having played football and tragically some injuries end up being serious. I will tell you that awareness, preventative measures and care are at all time highs and from my 30 years of experience – the game of football gives so much more than it takes away.

I cannot imagine my life without the invaluable lessons, situations, and experiences that football has provided me. I have experienced being a back-up and a starter. I have been the hero and the goat. I have been on an 0-10 team and a 10-0 team. I have suffered injuries and have seen guys end their career due to injury. I have seen the pain when players fail to make the team and the uncontrolled joy when players are told they are receiving a full ride athletic scholarship to play football in college. Football has taken me to play or coach in seven different countries, paid for my Master’s degree, and has allowed me to provide for my family my entire adult life. The experiences have run the gamut, but it is all worth it. The most valuable things that football has given me are the people I have met and the incredible lifelong relationships I have built along the way.

I love my mom. She has never done anything but want the best for me. Thank God she ended up letting me play football. For that I will be forever grateful. To all you parents debating whether or not your son should play football – let him if he wants to do it. I wholeheartedly believe that the benefits far outweigh the risks. It is truly a life changing game!

– Chris Creighton, Head Football Coach at Eastern Michigan University

Texas football coach Charlie Strong tells the truth on ESPN and shows why he got the job to LEAD

by Kent Sterling

Charlie Strong is a serious man with a serious culture change in Austin, and it’s about time an coach said what he said on ESPN.

When coaches and administrators get it wrong in college football or basketball, we carp and shriek from the mountaintops, so when one gets it right, we should applaud.

Texas football coach Charlie Strong told some serious truth during the Big 12 coaches car wash on the ESPN campus in Bristol yesterday. Some have been critical of Strong’s intolerance for idiocy from student-athletes, but I love it.

Part of being a college student is learning the boundaries within which they will be required to live as a functional adult, and many coaches punt on the responsibility to instill limits that occasionally will work to the short term detriment of the team’s ability to win. The result is a group of irresponsible adults who cannot assimilate easily into normal society.

Strong in his words and actions has shown he wants no part of irresponsibility from too often-pampered and enabled student-athletes.

Here are some of Strong’s gems:

“A lot of times (coaches) think, ‘Well I can help him.’ But are they helping him? If you see a young man with issues, you have to surround him with enough people to help change his life. If you can’t surround him with enough people to help change his life, you can say all you want, but the kid is never going to change.”
“There is no way a guy should hit a woman. There is no reason for it. If it happens, you need to find somewhere else to play. It isn’t hard. Sometimes people think it’s hard. You have values. Treat women with respect. No drugs. No weapons. How hard is that? I don’t get it.”
“I think a lot of coaches coach to avoid confrontation. They don’t want to discipline. But kids are looking for discipline. They need it.”

Strong hits on a great point, the problem with kids is because parents and coaches allow them to move through life unscathed while being morons. Not only do kids want discipline, they know they need it. Parents and coaches who strictly enforce limits wind up with great kids. Those who allow kids to rule the roost and never impose serious consequences for behavior that stretches beyond limits get screwballs who are constantly screwing up.

One of the great canards of sports is that talent is king. The truth is that talent, while necessary, is not nearly enough. There needs to be a well-defined culture, and a culture requires limits. Strong brought limits with him to Austin from Louisville, and the result was multiple players being told to leave the program.

Between March and September last year (his first season leading the Longhorns), Strong dismissed nine players, and suspended several more because rules establish a culture, and those who violate the rules forfeit their privilege to be part of the team. Consequences instill discipline, and that was the immediate message communicated by Strong in 2014.

Sure, the Longhorns finished his first regular season 6-6, but the same thing happened at Louisville when he got there – the culture took root, and the Cardinals became a very good college football team. It will take time, but Strong at Texas is a potential problem for Alabama and Ohio State as those blue bloods try to continue to hang national championship banners.

Regardless of whether Strong wins a number of national champions in Austin, the culture at Texas will graduate adults ready to contribute into a professional workplace with its own rigid culture. That’s in stark contrast to what continues at Florida State where the inmates run the asylum rather than the adult Jimbo Fisher is paid to be.

Knucklehead programs attract knuckleheads. Serious and disciplined programs get serious and disciplined players. Strong has taken Texas from knucklehead to serious, and Longhorn players will reap the benefits of that sea change – and so soon will their fans.

IndyCar gag order shows weak knees and leadership vacuum

by Kent Sterling

Mark Miles is a good and smart guy, but saying a gag order is not a gag order insults us.

People who run things need thick skin. Criticism is a part of the equation for leaders, and it can be helpful in improving systems, staffing, and building success.

A new rule has been adopted by IndyCar that shows whether they know that or not, they don’t embrace it.

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The rule is a gag order that allows series officials a wide latitude in penalizing those who speak critically. Here it is:

Rule 9.3.8, Detrimental Competitor Conduct, states:

Competitors must be respectful, professional, fair and courteous to others. At all times, Competitors must not, attempt to, or engage in conduct or statements that in the judgment of INDYCAR:

a) Threatens or denigrates any Official, fellow Competitor or the INDYCAR brand;

b) Calls into question the integrity or legitimacy of the Rules or their application, construction or interpretation;

c) Denigrates the IndyCar Series racing schedule or Event(s);

d) Threatens or denigrates any INDYCAR business relationship, including those with sponsors or broadcasters;

e) Otherwise threatens the integrity, reputation or public confidence of the sport, INDYCAR, or IndyCar Series.

When racing media lost their minds over this rule that threatens to limit the ability of those interviewed to express honest opinions, Hulman & Company (parent company of IndyCar) CEO Mark Miles tried to clarify the rule’s intent, “This rule is not a gag order. We recognize that controversy, tension and drama all have a place in motorsport today. Our drivers are competitors and we have no interest in eliminating the emotion and passion that is an integral part of our sport – or limit the content for media covering INDYCAR.

“As an example, some have speculated that the exchange between Ed Carpenter and Sage Karam last Saturday at Iowa Speedway would result in penalty under this new rule – that is not the case. We feel exchanges of that manner do not cross the line and instead highlight the intensity of Verizon IndyCar Series competition. We feel it’s our responsibility to distinguish between irresponsible statements that damage the sport or its competitors and the intense competitive nature of the series. This rule is to ensure we have authority to act when we feel it is required.”

So it seems this rule will be selectively enforced at the whim of series officials. It isn’t a gag order, according to Miles. It’s a selectively enforced disincentive for critical language that negatively impacts public confidence in the sport. That’s quite a distinction. Miles is a really smart guy, but that doesn’t mean we are too stupid to see that the rule was crafted by those who want to shut the mouths of drivers, and that will be the result.

Drivers and team officials will be allowed to speak with passion until they say something that angers the thin-skinned people who are empowered to wield penalties, and then look out.

Miles can’t have it both ways. The rule says one thing, and his explanation says something entirely different. That level of confusion is not new to IndyCar, and it’s a big reason why the series continues to languish in the background of the American sports palette like a pond seen through the window behind Jesus Christ in Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”.

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IndyCar needs a whole lot more of what Miles champions in his clarification, and eliminate what the rules seeks to prevent – controversy. Talk is good. All publicity is good publicity, and if IndyCar officials are too thin-skinned to welcome coverage due to raw and honest criticism, they are in the wrong business.

Roger Goodell is the commissioner of the most popular and profitable sports enterprise in America, and there are few people in America publicly criticized more often than he is by current and former players in the league he oversees. The NFL has never enacted a gag order for its players. You know why? Because it’s weak, and the NFL is strong enough to withstand some internal strife.

IndyCar needs leadership able and willing to tolerate all criticism. If it’s good enough for Goodell, it should be good enough for IndyCar. Being mocked, chastised, and humiliated is part of the cost of running things.

Deflategate decision – With the NFL the goal is always prudence, not what’s right

by Kent Sterling

Because of various and sundry negative perceptions attached to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Patriots QB Tom Brady will emerge from Deflategate mostly untarnished.

It wouldn’t be a shock if the NFL runs public opinion polling with the same regularity as the White House when determining which course of action to take in a decision like the response likely to be announced this week to the Tom Brady appeal.

Sadly, because of the vacillation the NFL has shown under commissioner Roger Goodell in adjudicating it’s wildly uneven penalties for behavior not becoming an NFL player there will be public doubt and scorn aplenty for Goodell when he announces the NFL’s response to Tom Brady’s appeal of his four game suspension for his role in Deflategate.

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Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was suspended for two games for knocking his then girlfriend (now wife) unconscious in a casino elevator. Fans rioted, and the suspension became indefinite.

Carolina Panthers defensive lineman Greg Hardy was suspended for 10 games for his role in a suspected episode of domestic violence. When his wife refused to cooperate with the investigation and charges were dropped, the Dallas Cowboys signed Hardy and the NFL responded by reducing the suspension to four games.

When Tom Brady was found to be likely complicit in the deflation of footballs used by the New England Patriots offense during the AFC Championship last January, he was suspended for four games, and the team was fined $1-million and docked draft picks.

As you might imagine, Brady senses a potential backlash if fans believe he cheated that might mirror those attached to baseball dopers like reviled Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun, who was lustily booed at last week’s All Star Game, and unrepentant New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez.

A cheater is a cheater, and any acceptance by Brady of any suspension will be seen by many as a tacit admission of guilt. If Goodell absolves Brady entirely and removes the suspension, he looks weak – like the toady of Patriots owner Robert Kraft many suspect him to be. If Goodell stands firm on the four game rip, Brady will likely sue the NFL in federal court.

Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.

Brady is damned too, regardless of the outcome. Outside of Patriots fans, who revere Brady, football fans see the Patriots as a renegade outfit who have exploited every possible advantage to increase their chances of winning a championship.

“Did he do it, or know it was being done?” aren’t the most relevant question regarding Deflategate. It’s not even whether it was done at all by those Patriots ballboy rubes who were in charge of the balls. The real question that will guide Goodell’s decision is the exposure for the NFL each possible option potentially presents.

The NFL is exceptionally sensitive to public outrage, and the path of least public resistance has been the one followed for the majority of Goodell’s reign as the czar of America’s league.

That path is a reduction of the Brady suspension to two games, and so it will likely be. Holding at four would be out of character for a commissioner who reduced to four the suspension for Hardy – a guy who was accused of throwing his girlfriend to the floor and into a bathtub, slamming her against a Futon and “strangling” her during an argument at his home.

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Goodall finds himself in the unenviable position of having choices which would each be viewed as flawed, regardless of which he opts for. He’s like a contestant on “Let’s Make a Deal” where doors one, two, and three each conceals a goat.

For Brady, the oafishness of the NFL’s disciplinary wing has made him appear more and more sympathetic, which is quite a trick. The Patriots continue to find new ways to annoy the fan bases of the other 31 teams, while thrilling its own, and even fans predisposed toward booing Brady are starting to view him as preyed upon by incompetents.

Whatever happens, those who dislike Goodell and Brady will have plenty to carp about whenever the decision is announced, regardless of what it is.

Tom Crean outspends Bo Ryan 10-to-1 in recruiting in 2013-2014

by Kent Sterling

Tom Crean has been guilty of a lot of traveling himself – on the recruiting trail.

If Tom Crean ultimately fails to bring Indiana the banner Hoosier fans have craved to see raised to the rafters of Assembly Hall for 27 years, his recruiting budget will not work as an excuse.

According to Mark Alesia’s piece that was published yesterday in the Indianapolis Star, Crean spent $673,708 dollars on recruiting during 2013-2014. The next highest outlay was Illinois’ $431,327 – some $242K less.

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Bringing up the rear of the 12 programs reporting figures (Northwestern is a private school and not required to make public such data, and Pennsylvania law does not mandate Penn State share it either) is Wisconsin, participants in the last two Final Fours, who managed to assemble a quality roster while spending a piddly $62,082.

It seems counterintuitive for a program nestled in the midst of one of the most fertile basketball recruiting areas in the world to need to spend exorbitantly on airfare to go get 13 kids to play at Indiana, but under Crean they do.

This is yet another of many conundrums regarding Crean. If Crean spent $62K like Ryan, fans and media would carp about him not working hard enough to find the best. Because he spent so lavishly, critics will hammer Crean for wasting cash to acquire players who have put together a combined 16-22 record over the past two Big Ten seasons.

Choosing to leave Indiana to crisscross the country in search of basketball players is like flying from France to Ohio in search of great wine. You might find some good ones, but they are likely no better than what is produced in the winery 400 yards from your house.

Whether or not the money is well spent is entirely determined by whether Indiana wins or loses, and over the past two seasons the results have not been good.

A relevant question about Crean’s ability to recruit Indiana at a high level can and should be asked. Has Crean been forced to recruit elsewhere because coaches and players in Indiana have been worn raw by what they refer to off the record as his brash tactics and arrogance?

There was a time when Crean was able to recruit Indiana, but he took chances on the wrong kids because of measurables – the class of 2012, minus Yogi Ferrell comes to mind. That time appears to have passed with Southport’s Joey Brunk committing to Butler, and Ryan Cline, Basil Smotherman, and Grant Weatherford at Purdue right now preparing for their freshman season. Indiana did win the battle for James Blackmon, Jr.

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In a vacuum, cracking open athletic director Fred Glass’s wallet to the tune of close to a quarter million dollars more than Indiana’s closest conference rival could be seen as a good thing – evidence of hustle as Crean beats the bushes to find the best and brightest. Given the lack of recent positive results, Indiana fans look at this as yet another piece to a narrative that continues to evolve into a reason to ask whether Indiana Basketball has been driven into relentless mediocrity from which there is no escape – at least under current management.

Whatever Crean has spent, and whatever results his leadership has produced over the past two years, this coming season will determine his fate. Expectations are high for the Hoosiers, and if Crean’s eighth team cannot find it’s way into the top four of the Big Ten and a spot in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tourney, the doubters will have been proven right.

Five reasons why Pat McAfee will kill it this weekend at the Palladium

by Kent Sterling

Pat McAfee may not do 300 shows a year, but that won’t keep him from being damn entertaining this weekend at the Palladium

Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee doesn’t just kick the NFL’s balls, he’s owns a big pair too.

McAfee decided that his summer vacation would include an effort at entertaining a bunch of people at the Palladium in Carmel. He’s a celebrity around Indianapolis, so maybe a few hundred people would but tickets to hear him tell stories.

Sounded like a reasonable plan.

The first show sold out in 10 minutes, as did a second that was added shortly thereafter. That’s 3,000 people who invested between $30 and $100 to watch and listen to a professional athlete talk about himself. That’s an adventure many others have embarked upon – few of them successfully.

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A lot of current and retired athletes/coaches make a substantial living performing motivational speeches, but very few have the stones to try to thrill a crowd as a pure entertainer.

Not only will McAfee survive this dalliance with a performance art that many fight for years to master – he will thrive. He’ll kill it like a pooch punt inside the one. Here are five reasons why:

5 – Pat is a likable guy, and the first thing you need to bring to the stage is a personality that engages the audience. He has that. There is a sense in talking to McAfee not only that he is likable, but that he’s eager to treat people with respect. Likability goes a long way toward pleasing an audience.

Dave “the King” Wilson, an accomplished stand-up comic and radio host, told me a story about Sinbad once. Sinbad would show up at the club he was working and tell the other comics about his day. When he went onstage, he told the same stories. There were no jokes – no material of any kind in the traditional sense – and audiences roared.

4 – Knowing what you do well goes a long way toward succeeding. Pat knows he isn’t a joke teller, so he won’t tell jokes. It’s not enough to know what you do well – you have to avoid doing what you suck at. That’s a pretty good life lesson too. Old time stand-up comics would try to weave a song into the show. Why? If you suck at singing, don’t sing. Sometimes the easiest answer is the best.

3 – Pat has a great sense for self-deprecation, and isn’t afraid to tell stories that don’t paint him as a saint. Everyone in Indianapolis remembers Pat’s adventure in the canal and subsequent arrest. It’s a funny story of a night gone haywire, and a famous guy putting himself in a jackpot in the same way many of us might. The audience will wade through the stories they haven’t heard to get to the hit single.

2 – Expectations are low. Pat has been so transparent as he has promoted these shows that people feel like they are part of the adventure with him. No one, including Pat, knows whether he is going to rock or suck, so they will be forgiving. If Jerry Seinfeld was coming out on stage, people would expect and demand professional entertainment – material crafted over a number of years to where the language of each joke was perfect. An evening of chaos with Pat is like a really cool camping trip. An evening with Jerry is a night in a suite at the Ritz.

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1 – Pat knows how to work. Even though Pat is entering a new domain naive to the pitfalls and dangers of stand-up comedy, he knows from everything else he’s done in life that hard work yields a positive result. He’s going to walk on stage having prepared a lot harder than we might think he did, and the result will be surprisingly adept.

Another #1 – Pat has no tolerance for boredom, and so he will shift from the tedious, should it ever come, to something else that engages him before the audience gets restless. You want a great tip for hiring a radio host. Find someone with ADD or ADHD. The best hosts cannot stand boredom while the worst have no barometer for it. Pat hates boredom, so the audience will never feel it.

Yet another #1 – Tom Griswold. Pat is a regular on the Bob & Tom radio show, and few people on the planet understand and appreciate stand-up comedy with Tom. He’s also very generous in trying to help performers. My guess is that Tom has offered a lot of sage wisdom over the years to Pat, and the result of that counsel will be apparent.

If you’re going to the show, have a great time. I can’t imagine how you wouldn’t.

Pat McAfee and a microphone. Sounds entertaining as hell.

It’s good form to wish a performer in the theatre luck by telling them, “Break a leg.” Not sure whether that’s ever a good idea to tell a punter.

DeAndre Jordan’s pivot back to Los Angeles could pay big dividends for the Indiana Pacers

by Kent Sterling

Mans owner Mark Cuban just might be pissed off enough over losing DeAndre Jordan to help the Pacers build their roster for 2015-2016.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban just might be pissed off enough over losing DeAndre Jordan to help the Pacers build their roster for 2015-2016.

The silly NBA moratorium was bound to cause this level of chaos eventually.

DeAndre Jordan, a rebounding machine in his prime, was highly sought after as a free agent. The team for whom he toiled for the first seven years of his NBA career, the Los Angeles Clippers, wanted him back. The Dallas Mavericks wanted him too.

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It was reported that Jordan didn’t like being relegated to the bottom of the list of offensive options for Clippers point guard Chris Paul, and so Jordan agreed in principle to a deal to jump to the Mavs.

That removed Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert from the Mavs wish list. A trade with the Pacers to acquire Hibbert was said to be option #2 for the Mavs as they searched for bigs, so the Pacers reportedly agreed to deal Hibbert to the Lakers for something more than a bag of balls and an autographed Nick Young rookie card but less than someone who might ever play for the Pacers.

Then Jordan developed a serious case of buyer’s remorse. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, coach/GM Doc Rivers, and Paul flew to Houston to visit with Jordan to discuss how leaving might not be necessary. He listened as Paul like promised him more touches, and signed as soon as the moratorium ended early this morning.

Now, the Mavs are without the big man they coveted, and might be very interested in picking up the phone to discuss the willingness to pull the trigger on the Hibbert deal they believed was unnecessary just 24 hours ago. Maybe the Mavs would be willing to part with a real asset in exchange for the much maligned giant whose time in Indianapolis has run its course.

Or maybe the Mavs entering the bidding for Hibbert will force the Lakers to raise the ante on their end.

Or maybe, Bird goes old school, sticks to his word, and honors the deal that seemed a win-win regardless of the return when reports of the deal leaked last week. Hibbert is no longer a player the Pacers want, and a lot of roster bandaging could be done with the $15.5M Hibbert counted against its cap.

Hibbert is slow, plodding, and ungainly. Regardless of his ability to protect the rim, Hibbert is a liability for a team committed to playing the kind of uptempo basketball the NBA is legislating into success. Regardless of his pros and cons as a player, the real asset being dickered over is that huge contract that will bring great flexibility to pursue free agents next offseason. The Lakers and maps are bidding for that every bit as much as a 7’2″ center.

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Cuban is furious, Ballmer is giddy, and Larry is in the cat bird’s seat with an asset he was prevented from officially dealing because of a moratorium whose most legitimate purpose is to extend media coverage of the NBA another few days into the offseason.

Negotiations occur, deals are crafted, but the contracts sit unsigned. That leaves open the window through which Jordan has now jumped, and the dominoes continue to fall all over the NBA until the Lakers wind up without that giant contract of Hibbert’s that will come off the books next offseason along with that of the once great but decaying carcass of Kobe Bryant.

Now instead of the Pacers benefiting through addition by subtraction, the market with a pissed off Cuban seeking Hibbert might just be robust enough to bring them some addition by addition.

Business in the NBA is fascinating, and maybe that is reason enough for this silly contrivance of a moratorium to exist.